Free Bird!

I just beat Free Bird on Hard.

Four stars, even.

I am getting better. I made it to the fourth set on Expert, too. My wrist kind of hurts, but still.

My 360 won't tell you about it tomorrow, not directly, but it will tell you that I added one achievement. Can I get a hell yeah?

P.S. I saw some of a rerun of the CMT Awards Sunday, and I remembered several reasons why I like country music.

360 review: Guitar Hero III (9/10)

That's right. Even the fanboy in me has to acknowledge that although the latest entry in the Guitar Hero series is worth the weight, it does have some flaws.

The game is a bit different than the previous versions: Neversoft has done a good job of keeping things that worked well and adding improvements here and there.

As mentioned before, one nice addition is an on-screen counter for streaks of 25 notes or more. The good news is that now you can tell exactly how far from that 1000-note streak you are. The bad news is that you can break that 990-note streak by looking at the on-screen counter ...

Another nice change is that the Easy sets now work exactly like the others: there's money for each level of each song and an encore in each set. (On Easy and Medium, you can skip one song per set. On Hard and Expert, you must beat all songs to play the encore.)

New to GH III is online play; haven't tried it yet, but it sounds pretty neat. Unfortunately, no online co-op career mode ... what's that? Oh yeah, there's now a co-op career mode. Just like solo, you have four difficulty levels, and just like in co-op quickplay, you each set your difficulty level and you split the instruments (one plays lead, one plays rhythm or bass). The difficulty level for the team is the lower of the two, so if you're playing Hard and your partner's playing Easy, you'll be unlocking Easy songs. There are a few co-op career achievements this time, so it's worthwhile to find someone to come over and rock with you.

Interestingly, the co-op sets are not the same as the single-player sets: the encores in co-op are not available in single-player, some single-player songs appear in different sets in co-op, and the single-player songs you don't play in sets are unlocked once you beat the final song. (Thankfully, there's no boss battles in co-op.)

The bad news? That battle mode you've been hearing about? Well, it's part of the solo game, too. You have to defeat three bosses to beat the game. (Well, you don't have to beat the first two - you can actually skip them if you lose to them often enough, but still ...) I dislike this immensely. Keep your PvP crap out of my PvE game.

Once again, the songs you can buy are eh. Please, at some point, let us buy songs that we know. Please.

Achievements seem to be geared for a distressingly high level of ability. 315 of the 1000 points will not be available to you unless you can master the Expert songs, and another 75 points will be lost if you and a friend can't dominate Expert co-op play. I think this is going to end up like PGR 3, where a lot of people simply stopped playing once they'd peaked in the game because there simply weren't enough middle-difficulty achievements they could get.

Finally, achievements seem to be very glitchy. The xbox360achievements.org forums have a lot of complaints about things not unlocking when they should. Best get on that, programmers. We likes our gamerscores.

Oh, one more thing. You can go to guitarhero.com, create an account, and link it to your 360 gamertag (or your PS3 or Wii saved games???). You'll then get "groupies" based on your in-game ability, play in tournaments, and even join a tour group (I'm in the x360a tour group). There's a lot of neat data on the site, like your last few scores, favorite character/guitar/stage, and your progress through the game, but it's very glitchy. It only seems to read data from your active band, so if you're playing with an alt band when you first sign in, you won't get much credit. Also, several features aren't self-explanatory (how do you get groupies?). But hey, it gives them a bit of online visibility before Rock Band blows all that away, right?

So they lose a point for the battle-mode crap and the achievements, but other than that, this is a solid title, and I'd recommend it. (I'd beware the wireless guitars, though. I hear lots and lots of stories about problems with them. I have no idea why they went with removable necks. Bad idea.)

zlionsfan's rating: 9 strings out of 10.

SPOILER ALERT: A track-by-track breakdown of the sets follows.

Set 1 songs

• Foghat: Slow Ride
Ha ha. I remember seeing these guys at a bar in West Lafayette. Good song for the Tone Deaf achievement. (No, literally. I do like it, and it's a good set-1 song.)
• Poison: Talk Dirty To Me
Hey, they got the title right! (On this song. See set 8.) Kind of weak that they got Bret Michaels for vocals, but not the rest of the band.
• Pat Benatar: Hit Me With Your Best Shot
She's a Set 1 staple now. Nice song.
• Social Distortion: Story Of My Life
Hadn't heard this one before, but it's a nice song and full of notes. A quick 250K on medium.

Set 1 encore

• Kiss: Rock and Roll All Nite
Excellent choice, especially given the scene in the game (playing in a back yard, with police using car headlights for ground-level lighting and helicopters for overhead lighting). Good set.

Set 2 songs

• Mountain: Mississippi Queen
Great song, good choice, and as a bonus, because it's a cover, you can tell what they're singing.
• Alice Cooper: School's Out
Another good song, although the cover singer isn't that good.
• Cream: Sunshine of Your Love
Strange to have a Clapton song in set 2.
• Heart: Barracuda
What, no crazy intro? (pun intended) Last song in a solid set.

Set 2 encore

• Rage Against The Machine: Bulls On Parade (performed by)
After the first stupid boss battle, you get this song. eh. Lots of repetition.

Set 3 songs

• The Killers: When You Were Young (performed by)
This song grew on me quickly; best in the set, which is not one of the better sets in the game.
• AFI: Miss Murder (performed by)
Who? What? eh.
• The Who: The Seeker
Never heard of this song, but it's interesting.
• Priestess: Lay Down (performed by)
Shouldn't it be "Lie Down"?

Set 3 encore

• Rolling Stones: Paint It Black (performed by)
Awesome encore, especially since it's them. Almost makes up for the stupid Pontiac stage.

Set 4 songs

• Black Sabbath: Paranoid
Hell yes.
• The Sex Pistols: Anarchy in the U.K. (performed by)
eh. Not a big fan anyway, and the new guys aren't as good as the dead ones.
• Sonic Youth: Kool Thing (performed by)
eh.
• Weezer: My Name Is Jonas (performed by)
Decent, but the lyrics are funny. Did you know the workers are going home?

Set 4 encore

• Pearl Jam: Even Flow (performed by)
Another solid encore. Three of four so far.

Set 5 songs

• The Dead Kennedys: Holiday In Cambodia
Interesting to see punk bands represented so well.
• Scorpions: Rock You Like A Hurricane
Excellent song.
• Aerosmith: Same Old Song and Dance (performed by)
Another great song.
• ZZ Top: La Grange
A great end song, although the cover singer is awful. Why isn't this a master track?

Set 5 encore

• Guns N Roses: Welcome to the Jungle (performed by)
Making up for the second boss battle, an outstanding track. GNR fits well with this game.

Set 6 songs

• Santana: Black Magic Woman
This is a great song to play. The bass line is deceptively difficult, even at the lower levels.
• The Smashing Pumpkins: Cherub Rock (performed by)
Not bad, especially compared to the next two songs.
• White Zombie: Black Sunshine
Could be worse. This song is repetitive.
• Tenacious D: The Metal (performed by)
Are you ******* kidding me? This is a ******* joke. These ******* don't even belong on a CD, much less in a game. The sad thing is that even though the lyrics are stupid, the song's better to play than Black Sunshine.

Set 6 encore

• Stevie Ray Vaughn: Pride and Joy
Beautiful recovery from the end of that set. Too bad the cover singer does a terrible job. (Mental note: get master tracks for Texan singers.)

Set 7 songs

• Slipknot: Before I Forget (performed by)
Ah, here comes the crap metal that I don't like.
• Disturbed: Stricken (performed by)
More of the same.

• Queens of the Stone Age: 3's & 7's (performed by)
More of the same.

• Muse: Knights of Cydonia (performed by)
This one isn't so bad.

Set 7 encore

• Living Colour: Cult of Personality (remake, performed by)
I guess the guitar part is pretty difficult. Not at all what I was expecting here.

Set 8 songs

• Slayer: Raining Blood [sic] (performed by)
Yeah, the forums were ablaze as soon as the track list was released. That's "Reign In Blood", guys.
• Eric Johnson: Cliffs Of Dover
Awesome song for this game. Note: Texas music with no vocals. Much easier to cover.
• Iron Maiden: The Number of the Beast (performed by)
Great song, even more appropriate considering the stage.
• Metallica: One (performed by)
Huge points if you can master this song.

Set 8 encore

• None
That's right. The retarded boss battle is actually the encore. boo. However, unlike the other two fake songs, this one is a cover of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia." Unfortunately, it's a bad cover, but hey, at least it fits the game really well.

Note that after you beat the game solo, you get to practice "Through The Fire And Flames" by Dragonforce. You'll need to. On Easy, you can get the 1000-note streak achievement, but you'll earn it. Sadly, this is one of those "all over the place because I can" songs, as opposed to, say, One, which is actually a song.

Co-op sets

I'll add these later.

Nothin' but a sandwich

Got my first 300K score on Guitar Hero II. Free Bird, naturally. Only missed 40 notes in the whole song (1201/1241), and 90% in Gtr Solo I (which is the crazy one). Someday, maybe, I can get the Yngwie award. Someday.

I'm on the seventh set on Hard, which also gives me hope. Actually, I've completed one of those songs. (The Trooper, naturally.) 14 five-star performances, 11 four-star, and 12 three-star (plus assorted extras), so I am gradually learning. I did have to practice Kansas and Heart a bit, and will have to practice some more, plus those three-star performances are costing me a lot of money. Can't unlock those characters without extra money.

I can't imagine how people get a billion points on this.

Where are the other songs? Seriously. It shouldn't take that long to come out with track packs. Then again, maybe they felt guilty for the exorbitant cost of the initial packs. Well, okay, probably not.

360 review: Guitar Hero II (10/10)

"What do you want to do with your life?"

"I wanna rock!"

Suffice it to say that I won't be posting a complete review for a while. I will say this much, though:

• The sets are not the same. In addition to adding songs not available on the PS2 (like The Trooper), they've moved songs around, so for example, Strutter and Heart-Shaped Box are now part of the first set.
• The Explorer hangs much lower than the SG did, plus the neck is thinner, so you can hold it more naturally. (Of course, it's still much lighter than a real guitar.)
• It helpfully comes with a kill switch - the guitar cord has a safety that will disconnect if you pull too hard. Naturally, mine wasn't completely connected, so I thought it was a controller problem. Duh.

zlionsfan's rating: 10 out of 10. BUY THIS NOW!

No, really. Now.

4/4 update
Watch the credits. Yes, all the way through (or you won't get the achievement). Pay attention at the end. ROFL moment.

With the longer strap, the guitar is much easier to tilt for star power. However, the whammy bar is still in an awkward place for lefties. How do I know this? Look at my achievements: I have the Hendrix one. (By the way, the achievements are a nice mix of solo and co-op play. I won't get all of them. Guaranteed. One guy on mygamercard.net had all of them but one on launch day.)